You will use Canva to create a mood board that showcases at least three genres of film (for a better grade, include up to eight). You should label each genre and find photos that you feel show visual choices or conventions that help you understand that it suits your chosen genre. You may revisit the Audience & Genre page and look at the class activity at the bottom to support you. Include at least three 'vibe' words (such as these) in each mood board that help explain the feeling that films of this genre will aim to instil in their audience. Save the links to your images as you go so that you can provide an APA reference list below your mood board.
A mood board is a collage or collection of images, text, and other visual elements that represent a particular theme, concept, or style. Mood boards are a good way to draw on the visual choices that have been made by others and synthesis them to create your own original work which has a well-rounded creative vision. Creating a mood board for film genres will help showcase understanding of approaches and techniques other designers have taken to portray film genres within their visual work.
1. Go to canva.com.
2. On the top right, select 'Create a Design' (purple tab) and click 'whiteboard' from the drop down menu.
3. You now have a page that will be as big or as small as you make it, depending on how many things you put in.
4. Start with your first film genre (e.g. 'Action') and create a title for it. Find at least five examples of movie posters for this genre. Consider colour schemes, typography, and composition that evoke the mood of each genre effectively. You could also include photos specifically of colours or typography, in addition to the five film posters.
5. Create a folder called 'Film Genre Mood board' in Google Drive. Begin saving images related to your theme in this folder. They can come from anywhere and do not need to be royalty free.
6. As you are collecting images, please also create a Google Doc in your 'Mood Board' folder and collect the links to where your images are from. You will need to APA reference them.
7. Back on your Canva whiteboard, you can connect your Google Drive using the toolbars down the left side of the screen. This is through the 'Apps' section.
8. Navigate to your 'Mood Board' folder on Google Drive. Click and drag images from the folder shown on the left of the screen on to your 'whiteboard.' Organize the Mood Board Explain that the mood board should be well-organized and visually appealing. Each film genre should have its section on the mood board.
9. Apply Graphic Design Principles throughout your mood board creation. For example, consider the arrangement of your images. You may wish to use 'arrangement' to make them all take up a rectangular space while being varied in size (as in the example at the top of this page). Consider using contrast and mixing where you place light and dark posters. Consider proximity and alignment to create visually harmonious mood boards. You can always return to our 'Principles of Design' page under 'Resources' to help you.
10. Once you have completed this process for one genre, repeat the steps for your next genre. Include a text box that says 'Film Genre Mood Board' somewhere on your mood board.
11. Peer review: Show your mood board to someone else in the class. Ask them if they would change any of the design choices. Make any adjustments desired.
12. When you are done, go to 'share' on the top right of the screen and download your Film Genre Mood Board as a PNG.
For your Portfolio
For this task, create a subpage called 'Film Genre Mood Board' under 'Class Projects.'
Insert your mood boards and label them
You have at least three film genre mood boards
You have provided links to photos used
You have included three vibe words in each mood board
You have completed previous steps
You have written a few sentences below each mood board to describe it and explain how your vibe words and the images relate to the genre
You have created an APA reference list below your mood board to show where your images have come from.
You have completed previous steps
You have completed more than three genre mood boards
Your mood boards have a clear sense of aesthetic and style and you have used principles of design in your construction of them
You have written a structured paragraph below each mood board to describe it and explain how your vibe words and the images relate to the genre
You have created an APA reference list below your mood board to show where your images have come from.